One of my childhood playgrounds was Palmerstown Park in Upper Rathmines. It was about a five minute walk from my house. To get there you had to cross Darty Road. A long curving road that joined Upper Rathmines with Miltown. There are traffic lights there now but there were none when we were young. So it was only in later years that we could venture there alone when we were trusted to cross the road.

But I was there a lot as a young child. Either with my Mam or older sisters or on the many occassions when I would tag along with a friends family. We often brought a picnic. Or as a special treat a bottle of Taylor Keith lemonade and ice cream from The Villers shop, on Highfield Road.

It was a wonderland for our imaginations. I remember the iron water font with the lions (I think) head. It was painted a bright green colour and we would drink water from it freely after hours of playing. Sometimes we would pick large leaves from one of the many surrounding hedges and use these as a type of vessel for drinking from.

The park is divided into two sections. At the back of the park there was a small playground with swings, a seesaw and a roundabout. But most of our playing took place outside the playground. It was a great place for playing hide and seek as well as all of the usual ball games etc.

The front part of the park was more formal. Here there was a railed in duckpond with lots of ducks and a sort of duckhouse set up among the sliding slopes of the pond. There was an island in the middle of the pond, where the ducks would sit. We fed them bread most times we went.

There was a type of roofed summer house with a long wooden bench inside and an open front. This summer house overlooked a meticulously manicured lawn with flowerbeds blazing with colour all year round. The flowers and colours changed with the season. Little metal signs around the edge asking 'Please stay off the grass' And we did.

The park was once part of the demesne of Rathmines' Castle which was built in the sixteenth century and removed in the mid nineteenth. So the park is of Victorian design and was transferred to Dublin Corporation in the 1930s. Because of the age of the park most of the trees are spectacular and who knows how many years old, hundreds and hundreds. It has the largest Magnolia tree I have ever seen.

The only concerning memory I have of going to the park, was that we had to pass a building of public toilets that were on Palmerstown Road opposite the bus terminus. We were always warned of 'the dirty oulh fellahs' that could be lurking there waiting to grab us. We never really relaxed until we had walked past them

In my teenage years I was to spend lots of time in the Park, sitting in the Summer house, sheltering from the rain, talking to friends and later to my boyfriend of the time.

When I was nineteen I ended up working in an office just beside the park. I met a very good friend there. She convinced me to go to the Banba toyshop in Rathmines, where we bought roller skates. The old fashioned ones with the red leather straps. We spent lots of lunchtimes tearing around the park on our skates.

And then, a few years later bringing our own kids there. Wheeling the buggy around the park, reminiscing. Watching them on the swings I had played on and doing things I had done like collecting conkers and fir cones. And of course, bringing bread to feed the ducks.

Later again going with my Mam to the park after Daddy died. She loved sitting there having a chat, just people watching and seeing the lovely display of flowers and rose trees in the formal garden.

I have great memories of that Park and it played a big part in my life. For years I have been threatening to go back and revisit it. And yesterday I did.

With the five km limit restriction being lifted we decided to meet my sister and brother in law there and have a picnic lunch. While I am glad I went, and don't get me wrong, it's still a lovely park I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed and sad about how it's been somewhat neglected.

There are still of course, the magnificent trees that soar into the sky. But the poor old water fountain has gone to ruin. The duck pond has no ducks and it didn't look the best. It looked kind of sad and forgotten.

The playground is completely changed of course. Now about ten times the size it was in my day. Yesterday there were a few young children and dozens and dozens of teenagers who appeared to have taken it over for themselves.

The Summer house is still there but unfortunately strewn with graffiti on its walls. The grass didn't look so great either. The 'Please stay off the grass' signs long gone. A group of teenage boys sat where the signs had been eating their Dominos pizzas from their boxes. At least they put them in the bin.

The big circular flowers beds on the formal lawn were completely bare. Maybe they are about to replant them, hopefully so. There was the odd scattering of daffodils and tulips planted in various spots around the place but they have gone past their sell by date at this stage and looked a bit bedraggled. In fact in most places, they actually looked like someone had trodden on them.

The Park was never busy years ago. You never had much of a 'wait' to get a go on a swing. But yesterday it was packed with lots of children and a lot of young families. There was even an outdoor birthday party going on for a group of about eight little children and their Mums in one corner of the park, complete with balloons and face paints. There were lots of bikes, buggies and scooters on the go. And dogs of course, lots of dogs. So at least it is still bringing joy to many people.

It made me think that maybe sometimes it's best not to go back. It also made me realise how lucky I am to be living where I am. To be fair to Fingal County Council, most areas of Fingal and Swords are looking fabulous with the amount of planting they have done. There are flowers everywhere you go. The splashes of colour at every turn can't help but lift your spirits. I expected the Park to be the same yesterday I suppose.

Between the changes in the Park and the Covid notices everywhere it was a somewhat different experience to what I had been expecting or remembering. But then again, maybe I should go back later in the year, just to check out those flowerbeds. I really hope they plant them up.